Chapter 4 - The Woman They Wanted Gone
“Mother.”
Isabella Moretti’s voice remained perfectly composed.
“Send Emma Brooks away.”
Vincent looked at Emma.
“No.”
“Then you are choosing a servant over your family.”
“I’m choosing answers.”
“You always were your father’s son.”
“What happened to Anthony?”
“He became confused.”
Vincent’s voice dropped.
“If you hurt him—”
“Your brother is alive.”
Emma stepped closer.
“Ask her about my mother.”
Isabella heard.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Isabella said, “Evelyn should have stayed silent.”
Emma’s knees nearly gave way.
Vincent caught her elbow.
“What did you do?” Emma whispered.
Isabella ignored her.
“Vincent, this woman is dangerous to everything your father built.”
Emma laughed shakily.
“I clean your floors.”
“That is precisely what your mother used to say.”
The line disconnected.
Vincent immediately ordered every available man to locate Isabella and Anthony.
Emma walked away.
He followed.
“Emma.”
She entered the kitchen and gripped the counter.
“My mother died when a truck hit her car.”
Vincent said nothing.
“The police said the driver fell asleep.”
Her voice cracked.
“She was coming home from work.”
Vincent moved closer.
“Emma.”
“I spent twelve years believing it was random.”
“We don’t know otherwise yet.”
“She just told us.”
“No. She implied it.”
Emma turned.
“You’re defending her?”
“I’m making sure we prove it.”
That stopped her.
Vincent understood rage.
Rage wanted immediate action.
But evidence destroyed people more thoroughly.
Emma wiped her eyes.
“Why would your mother care about a hospital complaint from twelve years ago?”
“That’s what we find out.”
Marco discovered Anthony six hours later.
Alive.
Beaten.
Abandoned inside a warehouse owned by an old Moretti associate.
Anthony refused hospitalization until he saw Vincent.
His first words were:
“Celeste isn’t running this.”
Vincent stared.
“Mother?”
Anthony nodded.
The conspiracy began years before Lucy was born.
Isabella had controlled hidden family finances while Lorenzo lived.
Mercer had treated several people connected to Moretti businesses.
When Evelyn Brooks discovered falsified hospital records, she had unknowingly uncovered a laundering mechanism involving medical charities.
Evelyn intended to testify.
Someone stopped her.
Anthony had discovered fragments of the truth years later.
He had remained silent out of fear.
Emma slapped him.
Nobody stopped her.
“You knew?”
“Not everything.”
“You knew enough.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
Anthony lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Emma walked away before she did something worse.
Vincent found her outside.
“You can leave.”
She looked at him.
“Are you firing me?”
“I’m giving you a way out.”
“Because your family might kill me?”
Vincent did not soften the truth.
“Yes.”
Emma looked through the window.
Lucy was asleep on the sofa.
Her walker stood nearby.
“If I leave, what happens to her?”
“I protect her.”
“Like you protected her before?”
The words struck.
Emma regretted them immediately.
Vincent did not become angry.
“No,” he said. “Better.”
She studied him.
For the first time, she saw something beneath the tattoos, wealth, violence, and reputation.
A frightened father.
“I’m staying tonight,” Emma said.
“Tomorrow?”
“Ask me tomorrow.”
Vincent nodded.
At midnight, Marco brought them another discovery.
Rachel Kim was alive.
A traffic camera had captured her six months earlier under another name.
She had been hiding.
They traced her to a rural town three hours away.
Vincent wanted to send men.
Emma insisted on going.
Rachel opened the door and nearly slammed it when she saw Vincent.
Then she saw Emma.
Her expression collapsed.
“Evelyn?”
“I’m her daughter.”
Rachel began crying.
She let them inside.
Rachel possessed copies of everything.
Mercer’s falsified evaluations.
Celeste’s payments.
Isabella’s financial records.
And evidence concerning Evelyn’s death.
But before she handed it over, Rachel asked Emma one question.
“Did your mother ever give you a blue key?”
Emma froze.
She remembered.
A tiny blue key in her mother’s sewing box.
Emma had kept it for twelve years without knowing what it opened.
“Yes.”
Rachel whispered, “Then Isabella has been looking for you much longer than you realize.”
Outside, headlights appeared.
One car.
Then another.
Then six.
Vincent went to the window.
Armed men stepped out.
Rachel locked the door.
Emma reached into her pocket and touched the old blue key she had carried on her keychain for years.
Then someone knocked.
May you like
Three times.
And Isabella Moretti called Emma’s name.
